


Don't Give Up On Me, Baby

by Orange_Sunset_12



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt Michelle Jones, Hurt Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orange_Sunset_12/pseuds/Orange_Sunset_12
Summary: Time is a precious thing. After having a heated discussion, both learn that there are things that shouldn't be left unsaid.Or: Peter gets severely injured and MJ doesn't know what to do if he doesn't make it through.
Relationships: Michelle Jones & May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	Don't Give Up On Me, Baby

She’s laying on her bed, book open in her bent legs, abandoned. Her eyes focus on everything except the words in her worn-out novel. She has read it before, anyway. Her mind is elsewhere and her thoughts only involve around him, and she’s pissed as he has no right having that much control over her. Because he’s left an hour ago and MJ hasn’t been able to think about anything else since then.

Shutting the book with a loud thud, MJ stands up, walking around her room in distress, hands coming up to her already messy hair to simply have something to do with them.

The discussion didn’t end up well. Hell, it ended _far from well_ and MJ is still trying to process the words she’d said, the words she’d heard. Emotions are not her forte, nor simple for her to express, but he always made it easier. She’s vulnerable to him and him only, and Peter knows it damn well.

Michelle crosses her room to the window, the sun already setting on the crowded streets of New York, the horns of the many vehicles filling the air. It’s bittersweet, in a way, how her eyes fill with awe at such beautiful view, but her heart is nothing but in crumbs. The events of an hour ago fill her thoughts, and MJ closes her eyes shut, hoping he’s not currently doing anything stupid, out of frustration.

_“I can’t risk losing you, MJ! And if I have to choose between having you by my side or have you alive I choose you being alive!” He shouts, eyes wide and hurt, his fist closed tightly around his mask._

_“You can’t make choices for me, Peter! I know damn well what the risks of being with you are, and I still choose you!” She retorts, just as loud, her eyes filling with tears she’s rapid to clean because she’s_ so mad _. “You can’t save everyone.”_

_He eyes her achingly, his bottom lip trembling with emotion and MJ asks herself for the hundredth time since he showed up in her window just how they got into this situation._

_Peter shakes his head, and her heart breaks a little. “I… I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m so sorry.”_

_Shutting her eyes close, the last thing she sees is him putting on the mask, and the last thing she hears is the unmistakable_ thweep _of his web-shooters taking him far away from her._

Deciding that dwelling in the past won’t do her any good nor change their current misunderstanding, MJ holds her oversized sweater - Peter’s, actually, but she would deny if anyone asked - closer to her body, paddling to the kitchen to find something to eat. She’s not really hungry, though it helps to keep her mind occupied.

Halfway through her meal, MJ is somewhat satisfied that her emotions are considerably more in control, the sound of the TV she left on to make some background noise easing her nerves. 

That is until the news reporter calls breaking news, and she’s obliged to look up.

She wishes she didn’t.

Because there on her TV, in her small apartment, the thing she’s scared of the most happens, and she’s not prepared. There, on the small screen, two reports talk with fast, hushed voices, a cacophony of ambulances and police lights behind them.

“Everyone who’s been held hostage has been saved by our Hero Spider-man, and he’s now being assisted by our medics after being shot several times by one of the thieves.” Then, a small clip of Spider-man exiting the bank with a small child in his arms is shown and MJ can’t breathe. Because as he turns back around, signaling the police everyone is safe, shots are fired and he slumps to the ground, unmoving.

_No, no, no, this can’t be happening._

Her eyes fill with tears upon watching the small clip, her brain repeating the same words over and over again. “ _Spider-man is in a critical condition and is currently being transferred to the nearest hospital in town_.”

Before she knows what she’s doing, her feet are moving, her hands grabbing her phone and coat, and she’s out the door of her apartment in no time.

-.-

It’s hours later when she’s allowed inside his room. 

They say he’s stable. His wounds aren’t as deep as they thought - though one almost punctured one of his lungs - , thanks to his suit. MJ mentally thanks Mr. Stark profoundly as she goes up the stairs to where he is, even if Tony isn’t here anymore. He is, in their hearts, and MJ reminds Peter of that every single day. Or... used to? She doesn’t know where they stand now. However, he’s in a coma and the Doctors don’t know for how long he’ll stay that way.

Deciding it really doesn’t matter, MJ stops before entering the room, watching with tearful eyes as a breathing tube is what keeps him alive, his chest heavily bandaged and bruised. Her eyes don’t leave him as she crosses the room to sit on a chair beside him, hands immediately searching for the warmth only Peter Parker can radiate.

He’s sleeping soundly, and she lets him. MJ has known over the years that rest is medicine for Peter, and that’s just how he heals. So she holds his hand, fatigue finally reaching her as she rests her head on her arms, and darkness consumes her immediately.

-.-

It’s only hours later that she wakes up. 

The sun is up, and after a small moment of confusion, MJ is able to make sense of her surroundings. The room is now filled with the warmth that only the early sun can provide, and if it weren’t for the incessant beep of the machines keeping Peter alive, MJ could've mistaken it as just another morning of their lives.

However, her back aches from the discomfort of sleeping in a hospital bed, and Peter isn’t greeting her with his usual lazy smile, peppering kisses all over her face like he used to.

Such realization slaps MJ in the face. _Hard_.

It’s only when she lifts her head with an overdue stretch that MJ realizes May is sitting on the other side of Peter’s bed, too.

“Good morning, MJ.” May greets with a gentle smile. 

MJ nods, greeting the only parental figure of Peter with a small smile of her own. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you coming in…”

May dismisses her apology with a wave of a hand. “Don’t worry about it. It looked like you were having a much-needed rest. I wouldn’t want to wake you up.”

With a nod, Michelle adverts her gaze to the reason of her heart being in crumbles, her hand still clutched to his with gentleness.

“How are you holding up?” May asks, glancing at MJ with eyes as warm as the sun outside the window.

“I’m fine, thank you. You?”

“I’m doing okay, I guess.” She sighs. “He’s strong, he’ll pull this through.” 

A comfortable silence fills the room and MJ is glad May is here. May, after all this time, has turned out to be a second mother to her. She’s the one MJ goes to when there are things she can’t talk about with her own mother because well, Peter is Spider-Man. Therefore, May has been her safe place, too, so having her here, even though MJ knew she would, fills her with a sense of peace much like Peter fills her as well. Parker Magic, she guesses.

“You know we… we kind of had a disagreement before.” MJ starts, her voice soft as she opens up to May. “Things got heated pretty quick. One hour later he’s strapped to a hospital bed with bullets all over his body.” Her voice croaks and MJ wipes at the tears forming in her eyes with the back of her hand. “What if… I don’t…”

As if reading her thoughts, May extends her hand over Peter, and Michelle takes it with the hand that’s not holding his. “You see, sometimes we say things we don’t mean with our hearts. We always believe we will have the opportunity to make up for what we said because we don’t think about what could happen if, for some reason, we are not able to.” May starts, voice gentle. “We always think we have more time. More time to talk, more time to touch. And sometimes there are things we don’t do or say because “Why do it now when I can do them later?

“And when those opportunities go away, and we’re not given the chance to touch or say anything else to that person, we feel broken... sorrowful. That’s why there are things that shouldn’t be left on hold, because what if you can’t do or say what you thought you could later? That eats you alive and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

MJ sniffs, her eyes brimming with tears because May is right. She always is.

“He’ll wake up, dear. You know he will.

-.-

After May leaves mid-afternoon to go to work, MJ decides to rest for the remaining evening, deciding that staying awake is way more difficult when intrusive thoughts fill her mind non-stop.

So that’s what she does. Rubbing the back of Peter’s hand, MJ falls into a deep, dreamless slumber.

-.-

There’s something tickling the skin of her arm, but her brain is too exhausted to care. She’s pulled to the depths of unconsciousness before she has the time to notice that that same caress used to be Peter’s way of waking her up on lazy Sundays.

-.-

The second time MJ feels it, her eyes snap open, the tingling feeling catching her slightly by surprise because there’s no way Peter’s awake right now. This can only be a dream.

She lifts her head, and the moment her brown eyes meet his caramel ones, her heart warms in a way she hasn’t felt in a while. 

“Hey, sleepyhead.” Peter smiles, his hand still rubbing circles on the sensitive skin of her arm. His breathing tube is gone, and so is the annoying beep of the life support machine.

The corny side of her is desperate to hold him tight and reassure herself of his presence. However, MJ isn’t doing corny at the moment, so she stands up, staring at Peter with a fierce gaze that doesn’t intimidate him the least. A sad smile forms on his chapped lips as he eyes her carefully.

“What the _hell_ was that, Parker?!” She screeches, pacing around the room in distress. “You have _no right_ telling me I’m safer without you and then almost dying half an hour later!” 

She hears him chuckling gently, and she almost wants to yell at him that she’s being serious but the small laugh leaves him wincing in pain and she lets it go... for now.

“I thought you had enhanced senses, you know?” MJ retorts, eyeing him sideways from the foot of his bed.

“I… I wasn’t really focused.” He answers, voice low as he avoids her gaze.

Because of course he would try and save someone when he has problems he needs to be saved from too. But then he’s Peter Parker, and Michelle knows more than anyone how selfless he is, how easily he puts others in front of him, even if it costs him his own life.

She should hate him for it, but she doesn’t. In fact, that’s one of the many reasons why MJ is so undeniably in love with him.

Her eyes soften, not able to stay mad at him for long.

“You’re a huge dork, you know that.”

“I’ve been told such, yes.” He smiles, extending his hand for her to take. 

She does, as always, and sits next to him, eyes on his.

“I can try.” Peter says, voice as strong as one who just woke up from a coma can muster.

“What?” 

“You said I can’t save everyone.” He explains. “I can always try.”

“Yeah, but who’s gonna save _you_ , huh? Who will?

“You.”

“Pete, don’t change the subject-”

“I’m not!” He argues. “MJ, you were the last thing I thought about that night. If it weren’t for you, and how much I wanted to see you again, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to get through this alive. And I’m sorry for… for before. For hurting you. It was stupid of me to assume you didn’t think about every possible scenario happening because of us being together. Honestly, I don’t even know how I thought you didn’t think of that I mean, you always clearly think of everything, so who am I to question your deduction skills, am I right? Of course…”

“Pete-”

“...’cause I’m pretty sure if-”

“Peter-”

“... what would I do then-”

Amused but not surprised, MJ closes the short distance between them both, stopping Peter’s nervous rambling with her lips, effectively shutting him up. His hands fly to her cheeks, where they rest with so much care MJ could cry. He’s always so caring, so gentle, so passionate. The world needs more Peters Parker but she’s glad she’s the lucky one to have _the one_. She feels him relax under the kiss and her heart soars with love for this idiot.

“You know, I’m gonna be sure to ramble more often.”

MJ lets out a breath as her lips hover over his. “Shut up.”

May was right. Never take anything for granted. 

And as MJ sees Peter’s smile once more, she promises to herself she will never take his light for granted ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya!
> 
> I've been with a hell of a hype about spider-man lately, so of course I had to make these two suffer to my own contentment xD
> 
> This fic was inspired by For the First Time by The Script, as well as the title.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it, leave your thougths if you want and I'll see you soon! <3


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